New York latest state to approve driver's licenses for illegal immigrants

Illegal immigrants to the United States will be able to obtain driver's licenses in New York under a bill passed by the state legislature on Monday and signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo.

The state Senate in Albany voted 33-29 to approve the legislation, which previously passed in the Assembly. Democrats control both chambers of the legislature.

New York will join at least a dozen other states that allow illegal immigrants to obtain driver's licenses, becoming the second most populous state after California to take that step.

Many Republicans in New York opposed the measure, which was passed after Republican President Donald Trump moved to crack down on illegal immigration on several fronts.

New York Republican Chairman Nick Langworthy in a statement said the bill was one of several measures demonstrating the state's Democrats "are in lockstep with leftist radicals and could care less about the priorities of taxpaying New Yorkers."

Cuomo, a Democrat, had expressed concern that if the bill was enacted it would create a database of undocumented immigrants that federal authorities could use to deport them.

But the New York state attorney general has declared the bill had safeguards against that, Cuomo's legal counsel, Alphonso David, said in a statement.

Cuomo signed the bill on Monday night, his spokesman Peter Ajemian said in an email. It will take effect before the end of the year, according to the text of the measure.

New York state Senator Luis Sepúlveda, the measure's Democratic sponsor, said in a statement it will benefit the children of illegal immigrants by allowing their parents to drive them to school.

"In a time when immigrants' rights and livelihoods are being severely threatened, the Green Light Bill is a clear message that we New Yorkers will always choose to lead with courage and love and to fight for everyone's right to the American Dream," Sepúlveda said.

He also said it will improve safety on the roads.

In California, hit-and-run accidents decreased after illegal immigrants were granted driver's licenses beginning in 2015, according to a study by Stanford University researchers that was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2017.

The authors of the study suggested that, before the law took effect, illegal immigrants were more likely to flee the scene of an accident because their vehicles were unregistered and they feared having them impounded.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump declares emergency for border wall, House panel launches probe

WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency in a bid to fund his promised wall at the US-Mexico border without congressional approval, an action Democrats vowed to challenge as a violation of the US Constitution.

The Republican president's move to circumvent Congress represented an escalation in his efforts to make good on a 2016 presidential campaign pledge to build a wall to halt the flow into the country of illegal immigrants, who Trump says bring crime and drugs.

Hours after Trump's announcement, the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives' Judiciary Committee said it had launched an investigation into the emergency declaration.

In a letter to Trump, committee Democrats asked him to make available for a hearing White House and Justice Department officials involved in the action. They also requested legal documents on the decision that led to the declaration, setting a deadline of next Friday.

"We believe your declaration of an emergency shows a reckless disregard for the separation of powers and your own responsibilities under our constitutional system," said the letter signed by Chairman Jerrold Nadler and other top Democrats on the panel.

Trump on Friday also signed a bipartisan government spending bill that would prevent another partial government shutdown by funding several agencies that otherwise would have closed on Saturday.

The funding bill represented a legislative defeat for him since it contains no money for his proposed wall - the focus of weeks of conflict between him and Democrats in Congress.

Trump made no mention of the bill in rambling comments to reporters in the White House's Rose Garden.

He had demanded that Congress provide him with $5.7 billion in wall funding as part of legislation to fund the agencies. That triggered a historic, 35-day December-January government shutdown that hurt the U.S. economy and his opinion poll numbers.

By reorienting his quest for wall funding toward a legally uncertain strategy based on declaring a national emergency, Trump risks plunging into a lengthy legislative and legal battle with Democrats and dividing his fellow Republicans - many of whom expressed grave reservations on Friday about the president's action.

Fifteen Democrats in the Republican-controlled Senate introduced legislation on Thursday to prevent Trump from invoking emergency powers to transfer funds to his wall from accounts Congress has already committed to other projects.

'EXCLUSIVE POWER'

Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House, and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer swiftly responded to Trump's declaration.

"The president's actions clearly violate the Congress’s exclusive power of the purse, which our Founders enshrined in the Constitution," they said in a statement. "The Congress will defend our constitutional authorities in the Congress, in the courts, and in the public, using every remedy available.”

New York state's attorney general, Letitia James, said her office would also challenge Trump in court. California's governor, Gavin Newsom, also pledged to file suit.

"We won't stand for this abuse of power & will fight back with every legal tool at our disposal," James wrote on Twitter.

The president acknowledged his order would face a lengthy court fight.

"I expect to be sued. I shouldn't be sued ... We'll win in the Supreme Court," Trump predicted.

Trump may have also undermined his administration's argument about the urgency of the situation when he told reporters, "I didn't need to do this. But I'd rather do it much faster."

In their letter to Trump, House Judiciary Democrats said that language had left them "troubled."

Both the House and the Senate could pass a resolution terminating the emergency by majority vote. However, that measure would then go to Trump, who would likely veto it. Overriding the veto would require a two-thirds vote in both chambers.

Trump says a wall is needed to curb illegal immigrants and illicit drugs coming across the border. But statistics show illegal immigration via the border is at a 20-year low and that many drug shipments come through legal ports of entry.

Confronted with those statistics by reporters at the Rose Garden event, Trump said they were "wrong."

Also present were a half-dozen women holding poster-sized pictures of family members killed by illegal immigrants. Trump noted their presence in announcing the emergency declaration.

He estimated his emergency declaration could free up as much as $8 billion to pay for part of the wall. Estimates of its total cost run as high as $23 billion.

As a candidate, Trump repeatedly promised Mexico would pay for the wall. It was one of his biggest applause lines at his campaign rallies. Mexico firmly refused to pay, and now Trump wants U.S. taxpayers to cover the costs.

REPUBLICANS CONCERNED

Some congressional Republicans expressed dismay following Trump's announcement.

Greg Walden, a senior House Republican, said on Twitter he was "deeply concerned about the precedent that this action sets."

Republican Senator Thom Tillis of North Carolina said in a statement that Trump' declaration was not a solution.

"It wouldn't provide enough funding to adequately secure our borders, it would likely get tied up in litigation, and most concerning is that it would create a new precedent that a left-wing president would undoubtedly utilize to implement their radical policy agenda while bypassing the authority of Congress," Tillis said.

Other Republicans, such as Senator Lindsey Graham, were supportive.

With an emergency formally declared, Trump left Washington to travel to his Mar-a-Lago golf resort in Florida for a holiday break.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Daly City CA mulls becoming sanctuary city

DALY, CA -- Residents of Daly City are considering declaring the area a sanctuary city amid U.S. President Donald Trump's crackdown on undocumented migrants.

Daly, which is the largest city in San Mateo County, California has a very large Filipino population.

Some Fil-Am members of the Daly City Council are pushing to declare itself a sanctuary city to protect undocumented immigrants.

They say that as a sanctuary city, Daly will join over 400 jurisdictions across the United States in standing up to what they say is anti-immigrant rhetoric of Trump.

Daly Vice Mayor Juslyn Manalo, who proposed the idea, said Daly City needs to step up.

"If you look at the climate we are in now and people want to feel safe, people want to know there are safe havens. That's the difference," she said.

"People need to see it in writing for them to feel safe," Manalo said.

However, some members of the council are also apprehensive over the move.

Councilor Mike Guingona said becoming a sanctuary city meant losing out on some federal funding.

"I want to be real careful about that. I want to be careful for a number of reasons because we do have federal funds that are at stake here in our city and we rely on them a little more than other cities because we're an entitlement city," Guingona said.

City Manager Patricia Martel said she is unable to give an exact figure on how much money Daly stands to lose from Federal funding, but said it will be "several million" dollars.

Daly City Mayor Glenn Sylvester, meanwhile, said the city has already been acting as a sanctuary by refusing to comply with federal agencies in releasing information on its residents.

"Some folks are living in fear thinking that they are going to be deported. That is not the case. Here in Daly City, we pride ourselves---the schools, the police departments, and the medical facilities--we don't ask what your current immigration status is but you have sanctuary," Sylvester said.

"What I gather from the crowd today is that they don't know that so we need more of an outreach program," he continued.

The city council said it will study the impact of a potential loss of federal funding and see what resources can be made available to undocumented migrants.

Hundreds of illegal immigrants have been arrested in the U.S. amid Trump's pledge to deport 2-3 million undocumented migrants after taking office.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Trump's busy Day 1: Scrap Obama orders, deport illegals

WASHINGTON - Rolling back Obamacare and industry regulations. Deporting undocumented immigrants. Scrapping trade deals. And of course, building that border wall.

It will be an extremely busy first day in the White House for Donald Trump if he lives up to his various campaign and transition pledges to undo the policies of Barack Obama's eight-year presidency.

Some orders or guidance can be reversed with the stroke of a pen. Other policies will take months or longer to unwind. But he will be able to set efforts in motion on several fronts.

Trump has outlined dozens of actions he intends to take in the first hours of his presidency, but experts told AFP that the 70-year-old billionaire's effectiveness will be limited, given that the executive office is just one branch in a government that includes Congress and the judiciary.

"He can't just walk in there and do everything he wants to do on day one," immigration attorney David Leopold told AFP.

"In a democracy, there is no CEO."

Some of Trump's promises are pie-in-the-sky political messaging, like proposing a constitutional amendment imposing congressional term limits.

Other proposals, like his day one vow to "cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama," would dramatically shatter tradition.

But Trump is about nothing if not upending established order.

Here are some highlights of his stated opening day plans.

- Health care -

Trump has pledged to introduce, with Republican leaders in Congress, legislation to "repeal and replace" Obamacare, and his team stresses he will immediately sign executive orders related to dismantling the law.

He could issue them on two fronts: allowing people to keep their plans which might not have qualified under the Affordable Care Act, and voiding penalties for individuals not having coverage.

Trump recently said he then hoped to see Congressional action to repeal and replace Obamacare "essentially simultaneously," although Republicans have yet to unveil their replacement.

- Immigration -

During the campaign, Trump was eager to order the deportation of convicted criminals who were living in the country illegally, a group he said topped two million people.

"Day one, my first hour in office, those people are gone," he told supporters in Arizona in August.

But Leopold said such processes are already underway: Obama's administration made deporting criminals a high priority.

Plus, the president "doesn't have the power to order anybody's deportation," Leopold said.

Trump has vowed to introduce legislation on day one that would fund construction of the "great wall" he wants built on the US border with Mexico.

He could immediately suspend the Syrian refugee program, and pledged a day one suspension of immigration "from terror-prone regions where vetting cannot safely occur."

Another controversial move he has advocated is scrapping the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which Obama instituted in 2012 to allow more than 750,000 undocumented immigrants who came to the country as young children to live and work in the United States without fear of deportation.

"Trump could reverse that guidance with the stroke of a pen," Leopold said.

- Environment, energy -

Trump has made no secret of his intent to end what he sees as the Environmental Protection Agency's intrusion into American industry, including Obama's Clean Power Plan compelling power plants to slash carbon emissions.

Vice President-elect Mike Pence has said Trump will "end the war on coal on day one."

Trump pledged to scrap coal leasing moratoriums and open federal lands for drilling and mining in order to access a mother lode of oil, natural gas, coal and uranium.

He has also expressed intent on day one to approve the Keystone XL pipeline project linking Canada to US Gulf Coast refineries, which the Obama administration blocked.

Trump also pledged to immediately cancel "billions in payments to UN climate change programs" and use that money to improve environmental infrastructure.

- Trade, government -

Defying the longstanding free trade traditions of his own party, Trump said that on his first day he will announce the United States will back out of or renegotiate two sweeping trade pacts: the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a 12-nation agreement that has yet to come into force, and the longstanding North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

He vowed to immediately instruct his Treasury secretary to label China a "currency manipulator," a move that some observers warn could spark retaliation by the world's second largest economy.

As a way to "drain the swamp," his catchphrase for cleaning up Washington, Trump has said he will issue a five-year ban on political appointees becoming lobbyists after they leave the administration. He would also slap a hiring freeze on federal employees.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Crackdown on illegal workers felt in Saudi

RIYADH - Stores in a usually bustling district of the Saudi capital were closed, construction work at some sites slowed and bakeries around the country shuttered Tuesday, amid a clampdown on illegal workers.

On Monday, authorities began arresting people overstayers who had failed to take advantage of a months-long grace period to leave or legalise their status, and detentions were continuing on Tuesday.

Residents in Riyadh said stores were closed in the popular Al-Batha commercial hub, a cheap market that employs low-paid Asian vendors.

At the same time, residents said work had slowed at a construction site in Thumamama, north of Riyadh.

And Fahd Al-Salman, chairman of the National Committee for Bakeries at the Council of Saudi Chambers, told the Arab News daily that the labour shortage had led to the closure of many bakeries in the kingdom.

Meanwhile, private schools that had closed on Monday re-opened following reassurances that expat teachers, working illegally, could remain until the end of the first school semester in December, residents said.

Nearly 4,000 people have so far been arrested in Jeddah alone, the kingdom's commercial capital, said local police spokesman Lieutenant Nawaf al-Bouq.

In the capital Riyadh, 818 illegal immigrants, including two women, were arrested on Tuesday, the police spokesman there General Nasser al-Qahtani told AFP.

In the southwestern Jazan province, border guards have arrested more than 8,000 people of various nationalities trying to cross the border to Yemen in the past 24 hours, the official SPA news agency quoted a spokesman there as saying Tuesday.

Three thousand of these have been deported as authorities are still finalising deportation procedures for the remainder, the spokesman said.

Hundreds of expatriates have also been arrested in other areas across the kingdom, according to local media.

Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalis, Pakistanis and Yemenis, among others, took advantage of the amnesty announced on April 3 and then extended for four months, and have left the country.

Another roughly four million have legalised their situation by finding employers to sponsor them, a must to reside in most Gulf monarchies.

On Monday, illegal Indonesian workers staged a protest in the port city to protest their consulate's slow pace in handling administrative procedures needed to organise their departure, local press reported.

In the past, foreigners desperate to work in the country were willing to pay for sponsorship, and sponsoring expatriates became a lucrative business for some Saudis.

But under the new rules, workers may be employed only by their own sponsors, banning the practise of working independently or for non-sponsors.

Saudi Arabia, the world's largest oil exporter, is seen as a goldmine for millions of people from Asia and elsewhere in the Arab world, who find work as common labourers, drivers, porters and house maids.

Expatriates account for around nine million of the country's 27-million-population.

Saudi Arabia has the Arab world's largest economy, but the unemployment rate among natives is above 12.5 percent, a figure the government is aiming to reduce.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com